diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 8c855857..047c015a 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -1428,6 +1428,8 @@ dependencies = [
  "lazy_static",
  "libc",
  "log",
+ "maplit",
+ "ncurses",
  "signal-hook",
  "tokio 1.28.2",
  "unicode-segmentation",
@@ -3229,6 +3231,17 @@ dependencies = [
  "socket2 0.4.9",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "ncurses"
+version = "5.101.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "5e2c5d34d72657dc4b638a1c25d40aae81e4f1c699062f72f467237920752032"
+dependencies = [
+ "cc",
+ "libc",
+ "pkg-config",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "ndk"
 version = "0.7.0"
diff --git a/external/cursive b/external/cursive
index 31ea07fd..250d35f3 160000
--- a/external/cursive
+++ b/external/cursive
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 31ea07fde2191be2ff8eb7c46c6fc2a1bfd8e311
+Subproject commit 250d35f37f526221539c8d59d7a2056803bf0010
diff --git a/veilid-cli/Cargo.toml b/veilid-cli/Cargo.toml
index ce11242e..9bbd9784 100644
--- a/veilid-cli/Cargo.toml
+++ b/veilid-cli/Cargo.toml
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ rt-async-std = [ "async-std", "veilid-core/rt-async-std", "cursive/rt-async-std"
 rt-tokio = [ "tokio", "tokio-util", "veilid-core/rt-tokio", "cursive/rt-tokio" ]
 
 [dependencies]
-cursive = { path = "../external/cursive/cursive", default-features = false, features = [ "crossterm", "toml", "ansi" ]}
 async-std = { version = "^1.9", features = ["unstable", "attributes"], optional = true }
 tokio = { version = "^1", features = ["full"], optional = true }
 tokio-util = { version = "^0", features = ["compat"], optional = true}
@@ -46,6 +45,12 @@ hex = "^0"
 veilid-core = { path = "../veilid-core" }
 json = "^0"
 
+[target.'cfg(not(target_os = "macos"))'.dependencies]
+cursive = { path = "../external/cursive/cursive", default-features = false, features = [ "crossterm", "toml", "ansi" ]}
+
+[target.'cfg(target_os = "macos")'.dependencies]
+cursive = { path = "../external/cursive/cursive", default-features = false, features = [ "ncurses-backend", "toml", "ansi" ]}
+
 [dev-dependencies]
 serial_test = "^0"
 
diff --git a/veilid-cli/src/ui.rs b/veilid-cli/src/ui.rs
index 0d217823..5fa5a2dc 100644
--- a/veilid-cli/src/ui.rs
+++ b/veilid-cli/src/ui.rs
@@ -709,7 +709,10 @@ impl UI {
 
         // Instantiate the cursive runnable
         let runnable = CursiveRunnable::new(
-            || -> Result<Box<dyn cursive_buffered_backend::Backend>, Box<DumbError>> {
+            || -> Result<Box<dyn cursive::backend::Backend>, Box<DumbError>> {
+                #[cfg(target_os = "macos")]
+                let backend = cursive::backends::curses::n::Backend::init().unwrap();
+                #[cfg(not(target_os = "macos"))]
                 let backend = cursive::backends::crossterm::Backend::init().unwrap();
                 let buffered_backend = cursive_buffered_backend::BufferedBackend::new(backend);
                 Ok(Box::new(buffered_backend))